Panic
by AbsolutAnda
Summary: Troy panics about becoming a father. Luckily, Chad is there to help him through it. Oneshot. Troyella, Chaylor. T for mild language.


**Panic**

"Shit, man!" Chad exclaimed, bending over and bracing himself on his knees, trying to take deep breaths while focusing on staying upright. "This is…the last time…you convince me…to stay later." He announced between breaths, bringing his head up to watch his oldest friend and teammate complete his layup and sink the basketball through the hoop. Troy didn't land nearly as gracefully as he had earlier at the beginning of practice, stumbling from exhaustion and having to run a few steps forward to keep from falling. He turned and walked back to Chad slowly, taking shallow breaths while bracing his arms on his waist, keeping his torso straight.

"Oh come on," He teased, though he was also out of breath. "You're already tired?"

"Don't give me that shit." Chad shot back. "You're just as tired as I am." He blinked a drop of sweat out of his eye as he straightened up, grinning as Troy nodded his agreement. "What the hell were you thinking, staying late today of all days?"

Troy sighed and ran a hand over his face tiredly, wiping the sweat from his eyes.

"I know, I know. I just needed something to keep my mind off it." Chad snorted as they started towards the gym locker room, falling into step with each other.

"Why are you trying to keep your mind off it? I can't wait and it's not even my baby. It's the first ultrasound we get to see." He paused. "…Thanks to Gabbi's crazy superstitions."

"She just doesn't want to jinx it." Troy defended. "Yeah, I know it's weird, but just remember that it was _your_ wife who put the idea in her head." Troy reminded him.

"Hey, this is not my fault." Chad argued good naturedly. "_I_ knew Taylor was kidding; I thought Gabbi knew it too." They entered the empty locker room, not worried about anyone else being there. It was nearly seven o'clock and the rest of the team had gone home almost two hours ago. They stripped off their sweat-soaked uniforms and tossed them onto a bench before separating into different shower stalls; the girls would kill them if they showed up at the hospital soaked in sweat and smelly.

"Besides," Chad continued, nearly shouting to be heard over the rushing water. "Who keeps their husband from seeing the ultrasound of his kid? That doesn't make any sense!" He ranted on, only to be interrupted by Troy shouting back.

"If you're so curious, _you _ask her. Last time I brought it up, she nearly bit my head off. I can't take the hormones for much longer." He added, letting his abused muscles relax under the steady stream of hot water.

"But why would she do that? I don't get it!"

Troy stood up on the balls of his feet, just tall enough to look over the divider between the shower stalls. Chad turned to look him in the eye.

"Look, miscarriages seem to run in her family, a few of her aunts have had them. She's really nervous about this so I figured if waiting to see the ultrasound would make her feel the slightest bit better about it all, then I can wait." He lowered himself back down and quickly shut off the water, now finished with his shower.

"Well when you put it that way…" Chad trailed off, rushing through his own shower to try and keep up with Troy, who was already wrapping his towel around his waist and leaving the shower stalls.

"Hurry up!" He shouted before he left the room to get dressed. "We have to be there in ten minutes!"

"Well whose fault is that?" Chad shouted back, quickly rinsing off the soap on his body. "_I_ wanted to leave with everyone else _two hours ago!"_ This time, Troy didn't answer.

* * *

"Took you long enough." Troy greeted as Chad finally left the showers, fastening his watch back around his wrist.

"Well I'm sorry we all don't take military showers." Chad shot back as he picked through his duffel to find his street clothes. "Why the hell do you shower so fast, anyway?"

Troy rubbed his hair with his towel, trying to get most of the water out. He was already completely dressed aside from his shoes.

"That basketball camp you missed in eighth grade." He answered shortly, only continuing at Chad's blank look. "If you took too long in the shower, the other guys would come in and throw you into the woods naked." He grinned at Chad's snort of laughter. "I had no desire to be known as "Streaker" or "Tiny" for the rest of the summer." He summarized.

Chad dressed in silence while Troy gathered his things together, stuffing various electronics into his pants pockets while deep in thought.

"This doesn't seem real." He stated suddenly, making Chad look up from tying his shoes, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "The baby, the ultrasound…it's hard to believe that I'm here already." He elaborated, much more subdued than he had been just moments ago.

"I know, man, it's insane." Chad agreed, much more enthusiastically, not noticing Troy's change in mood. "You're going to have a _baby!"_

"Yeah, I can't believe it. We're actually having a baby." Troy agreed happily, turning away from Chad to stuff his sweaty gym clothes into his duffel. But then he paused, turning back towards his friend, his clothes still in his hand. "We're having a baby." He repeated slowly after a pause, as if he was just realizing it for the first time.

"Yeah, it's great, man." Chad assured him, running a towel through his hair to get out any water droplets left.

"We're having…a _baby."_ Troy repeated, his voice flat, staring at Chad with wide eyes. Chad paused, letting the towel fall around his shoulders, watching his old friend carefully. "We're _having_ a baby." Troy said again, emphasizing different words as if it would change the reality of it all.

"Yes. You are." Chad confirmed, narrowing his eyes at Troy. "We established that over five months ago when you told everyone." He took a step closer. "Are you okay?"

"_A baby."_ Troy stated, staring at his friend without really seeing him. Shell shocked was the only adjective Chad could think of that described Troy's state. "I'm going to be a _father."_

"Yeah, that usually comes with having a kid. Seriously Troy, are you okay?" He reached out to place his hand on Troy's shoulder in a comforting gesture, but Troy moved first, clamping his hands onto Chad's arms, his eyes finally snapping up to meet his gaze.

"What the _hell_ am I doing? I'm not old enough to be a _father! _We're not ready for this! _I'm_ not ready for this!" He exclaimed, almost frantic, nearing hyperventilation, continuing to babble on while Chad's mind finally came up to speed, grasping what Troy had just said.

"Troy." He interrupted loudly, shoving Troy's hands off of his shoulders and moving his forward to grab his friend, trying to anchor him to something. "You're twenty-six." He continued once Troy had stopped his ramblings.

"Exactly! Twenty-six?" Troy broke out of Chad's grasp and backed up until his back hit the lockers behind him, running his hand down his face, letting it rest over his mouth. "I just got my _driver's license _ten years ago! I'm not qualified to drive around a _baby; _Taylor still won't let me drive around her niece!" He paused. "Chloe is _fourteen!"_

Chad stepped forward into Troy's line of sight, setting his face to keep his uncertainty from showing. He's never seen his friend like this in all his life. Sure, he'd calmed him down if he got nervous about a big basketball game, he comforted (in the manliest sense of the word) him whenever he and Gabbi had a fight, he was there for him when his grandparents died; he'd seen Troy working through every emotion he thought possible. But this was different; this was pure, raw fear. This was fear bordering on a panic attack.

"Troy." He started, keeping his voice steady and locking his gaze on his friend's. "You are the most qualified person I know to become a parent. You and Gabbi are the most responsible, caring…" He paused for a moment, trying to think of more ways to get his point across. "…_nurturing _people I've ever met. If _anyone_ is ready to be a parent, it's you two." But even as he finished speaking, Troy was already shaking his head, running his hand over his face again.

"No, no, no, I can't even change a diaper." He moaned, letting himself slide down the lockers to a seated position on the tile floor, not even noticing the puddle he had just sat in, soaking his jeans. "I don't think I've even _held_ a baby before!"

"Yes, you have." Chad corrected flatly. "You've held tons of babies; think of all your cousins you've held, you have like fifty."

Troy grinned, letting his head fall back against the metal lockers with a dull thud, wincing slightly. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment.

"I don't think I can do this." He said so quietly that Chad thought he'd imagined it. "Chad, I can barely take care of myself, let alone that baby inside of Gabbi." He continued, slightly louder, opening his eyes and meeting his friend's gaze reluctantly.

"Hoops," Chad started, moving to sit next to his friend on the floor, avoiding the puddle of water like Troy hadn't. "if you can take care of a team of unruly high school and college basketball players for what, six years?" Troy nodded dully, blinking against his bangs that fell into his eyes. "…I think you can handle _one_ little boy…or girl." He added when he remembered that they didn't know the gender yet. "And even if you can't at first, you'll have Gabbi, and me, and Taylor to help you out along the way. You're not doing this alone, Troy." He leaned forward slightly to see Troy's face better. He seemed to have calmed down considerably and was just staring at the ceiling blankly.

There was a moment of silence while Chad waited for Troy's response before the future father's head shot up suddenly before whipping around to look at Chad.

"What if it's _twins?_" He blurted out, eyes wide with newfound panic. Chad rolled his eyes.

"Troy, Gabbi's stomach is _tiny._ There's _no way_ two babies would fit in there."

Anything Troy was about to say next was cut off by the buzzing of a cell phone vibrating on a metal bench. The sound echoed through the otherwise empty locker room, jolting both men out of their thoughts.

"That's probably Taylor at the hospital." He guessed, knowing that Troy was thinking the same thing. He glanced down at his watch. "We were supposed to be there ten minutes ago." He added, but neither of them moved from their seats on the floor. "Are you okay?" He asked lamely, not being able to think of a better way to phrase it. It was a loaded question, asking all at once if he would be able to get through this, care for a child, care for Gabriella, keep himself together, and keep living his life.

After a moment, Troy finally nodded, focusing on keeping his breathing regular should he start to panic again. He nodded to again, this time to himself, before reaching behind him to push himself up from the floor. He turned and offered a hand to pull up Chad before he noticed the puddle he's been sitting in this whole time.

"Damn it," He swore, twisting around to get a look at how big of a wet spot the water and left on his jeans. "That better have been water…"

Chad just laughed and clapped Troy on the back before looping his arm around his neck, dragging him towards the door to the parking lot.

"Come on, Hoops, it's time to go meet your kid." He announced proudly before grabbing the keys out of Troy's shaking hand. "…I'll drive. Taylor would actually strangle me if we got into an accident on the way." He unlocked Troy's car, throwing his duffel into the back seat before settling down behind the steering wheel. Troy slid into the passenger side and sighed, relaxing into the seat. He was grateful to have Chad with him. He wasn't sure he would have been able to drive himself there, he was so nervous.

They drove in a comfortable silence for five minutes before Troy spoke.

"When are you and Taylor planning on having kids?" He asked, genuinely curious. Chad just laughed, waving it off.

"I've still got a few months before I have to worry about that. She's had this all scheduled out since we started dating."

* * *

That's all, folks. I know, not very long and not very...high quality. It has an abrupt ending also. It popped into my head while I was _supposed_ to be writing a paper for English...on King Lear. I'm not sure how I made the just from Shakespeare to High School Musical, but I'm glad I did. I made me less depressed.

Anyways, leave a review and you'll get a cookie (that I've just managed to burn in the oven because I'm just _that_ untalented in the culinary departmen)t.

Thanks!

Anda


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